The chance to see Jackie Chan sword fighting with John Cusack in 50BC China doesn’t come along often. What next? Cusack squabbling with Chan in a Chicago record store about the respective merits of Green Day and Stiff Little Fingers?

This stately, slow-moving action spectacular, with its huge digital landscape shots, is about the Silk Road, the trade route extending through China and the Middle East. Chan plays Huo An, the leader of a protection squad pledged to keep the peace between all the tribes and nations along the Road. After their meet-cute swordfight, he finds himself befriending General Lucius (Cusack) and his Roman soldiers, who have escaped from the evil and duplicitous Tiberius, played by Adrien Brody with an English accent, not unlike Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator. Huo An, too, must face deceit and duplicity from his own leader, when Tiberius attempts to enforce Roman imperial tyranny on the whole Silk Road.

The theme is making peace between the decent and honourable people on both the Roman and Chinese sides, a sentiment in keeping with the western-slanted marketing of this Chinese movie. There are nice moments, but this is pure bombast, and Chan’s natural action flair is not given free rein.